The commercials began airing more than a year ago. Now, with the primary just four days away, they have reached a crescendo that almost everyone in the state agrees is intolerable.

"It's all garbage," barked David Luoma, the proprietor of the Yellow Sub Sandwich shop in Concord. "They stink. They turn me off."

New Hampshirites are familiar with the advertising assault that comes from hosting the na-

tion's first primary. But the particularly hostile tone this year is turning off the electorate.

The commercials are concentrated on the state's sole network affiliate, WMUR in Manchester, which is running about 150 political ads every day, according to station director Julie Campasano.

The wealthier candidates are also buying time on the Boston stations, which broadcast not only in New Hampshire, but throughout several New England states. By buying in Boston, the candidates avoid having the purchase count against the New Hampshire spending limits imposed by the Federal Election Commission.

The public's disgust is so apparent that Steve Forbes recently announced that he would pull his attack ads, and every candidate now insists that his ads are not negative.

But the onslaught continues.

Former Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander could hardly keep a straight face when he was asked about his depiction of Forbes dressed in black tie with the admonition: "A Wall Street insider all his life."

The political ads are easy to distinguish from the rest. Most begin with doom-filled voices and scary musical tones. Menacing photographs of opposing candidates fill the screen.

Accuracy is not a required ingredient.

When Forbes looked as if he might pass Senate majority leader Bob Dole in the polls, the Dole campaign released an ad that shows New Hampshire Governor Steve Merrill explaining that Forbes' flat tax plan would cost the typical New Hampshire homeowner $2,000 a year in higher taxes.

The ad was wrong. The analysis upon which the commercial was based had looked at a different flat tax proposal and had not considered the $36,000 exemption that Forbes' plan would provide most families. In truth, the Forbes plan would probably save the typical New Hampshire homeowner more than $1,000 a year in taxes.

Forbes insisted that the ad be withdrawn. Dole refused. And Forbes began to plummet in the polls.

But it was Forbes who set the pace for the media barrage, spending an unprecedented sum in Iowa and New Hampshire, trying to tear down his opponents while buying himself name recognition and popularity.

The Forbes campaign will not disclose what it has spent on advertising, and since he is not accepting government matching funds, he is not bound by federal spending limits.

However, outside sources estimate that Forbes purchased about $4 million worth of TV time in Iowa and has already spent at least that much in New Hampshire -- a state with a population about one- fifth the size of the Bay Area's.

And that is just one candidate. Morry Taylor, a tire maker from Michigan and a rather obscure presidential wanna-be, has been on the air since August, telling voters in his nasal voice: "We don't need another politician or lawyer in the White House."

Even after Phil Gramm killed his campaign Wednesday, the ghost of his candidacy lived on through the night in an eerie ad that warned of moral decay, featuring sirens and flashing lights in the background.

William Zeliff, a New Hampshire Republican congressman, suggested that there is probably a "saturation point" after which the quantity probably doesn't matter.

Ad experts disagree.

"In general, the more the better," said Clark Hubbard, a University of New Hampshire political science professor who is studying the effect of political advertising. "The sheer repetition is one way of changing people's minds."

Voters insisted in scores of interviews that they pay little attention to the commercials. At the same time, they parroted the very messages and cliches contained in the ads.

"People might not like them, but the ads work," Hubbard said. "It is indisputable that negative advertising is effective."

The question is whether politicians this time have pushed beyond the public's tolerance.

Luoma, the sandwich shop owner, said he had planned to vote for Forbes before his commercial blitz began. But he is so disgusted by the tone of the ads from Forbes and the other Republicans, he has changed his mind.